Introduction

Paddy Power is the biggest and most successful Irish bookmaker. It is also a bookie with a reputation of being very security conscious and innovative. The web-site of Paddy Power is part of a chain of retail outlets throughout Ireland, Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Paddy Power is committed to innovation and is regarded as the King of money back specials. It mainly aims at providing punters with more platforms to bet, more events and markets, and at ensuring that customers always get a fair deal. The pioneering spirit of Paddy Power’s early days has remained constant in its years of operation.

Paddy Power has recently increased their welcome offer, meaning that all new players are now entitled to a free bet to the value of their first bet up to a maximum of £50.

Background & License

The company was founded in 1988 with the merging of three Irish bookmakers and immediately from the outset the company took a very unconventional approach to sports betting. The people behind the company decided to be committed to offering a greater value to punters who had for too long suffered because of bad sports betting operators. The formula was to achieve an instant meteoric rise and to base Paddy Power’s strong growth on that wave.

Paddy Power operates with over 350 retail outlets, of which 200+ in Ireland, a few in Northern Ireland and over 130 in Great Britain. Almost two thirds of its profits are generated outside of Ireland. Paddy Power claims to be the third largest online bookmaker and the sixth largest online gaming business in Britain and Ireland. Paddy Power is regulated by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision.

Free Bet & Promotions

Paddy Power’s sign up offer is primarily intended for UK and Irish customers, and for customers from several other countries listed at the web-site. When you open a new account and place your first bet up to a maximum of £50, the bet will be matched with a free bet of the same value of your first bet. The offer is only available for 30 days after the activation of the offer. The best part of Paddy Power’s services is the money back specials. Money back specials are offered each day for basketball, cricket, football, darts, rugby, horse racing and tennis.

Also it is unlikely that you will find something like the Last Man Standing competition at other bookmakers. Paddy Power gives away £1,000 every week to those that are able to make winning guesses on selected football matches and partaking is simple. Just select one team from a weekend Premier League Fixture that you believe will win and if your team wins you advance to the next round repeating the process, until you lose. Those that don’t manage to guess the winner are out of the game, and the competition goes on till the last man standing wins the guaranteed jackpot.

Betting Coverage & Odds

Paddy Power is predominately intended for the sports betting markets in United Kingdom and Ireland. The emphasis is mainly put on football and racing, as with all the UK bookies. It is not that they don’t offer a wide range of other sporting markets, like American sports, athletics, boxing, rugby, snooker etc., it’s just that the interest for football and horse is unmatched. On the contrary, Paddy Power is loaded with other sporting markets. The odds at Paddy Power are generally very good, especially for football betting.

Football

Paddy Power is mainly focused on UK and Ireland football. Some punters may complain that they are a bit more focused on those markets than needed, because lesser European football leagues are not covered as a result of that. Sometimes even UEFA or international matches aren't covered too if the UK based punters don’t show an interest in the match. But, for selected football matches Paddy Power will offer a money back promotion which usually runs along the lines of very specific bets, like last goal scorer of the game, or if a match ends draw. At the start of each football season Paddy Power introduces refunds for all losing four folds and upwards, but only if it’s a half time winning bet, but not full time.

Horse Racing

Interesting money back specials are available for horse racing too. For example, Paddy Power refunds the stakes if your selected horse falls during the race. Paddy Power is also outstanding when it comes to offering each-way values, regularly paying an extra place when it comes to the big horse races. When you notice that some big racing meeting, like the Cheltenham Festival, is covered by Paddy Power, immediately know that Paddy Power will put its neck on the line by offering to pay out losing stakes if the horse favourite wins.

Live In-Play Betting

Paddy Power is a live streaming web-site with an impressive selection of live streaming events with which the live betting platform is complemented. Thus a punter can watch his sporting event live while also betting live. There are over 3,000 live streams every year for football, tennis, basketball, snooker and horse racing and football punters are exposed to over thirty in-play markets on the big games. Paddy Power provides very competitive odds for live in-play betting in a range of sports and events. Besides the live streaming, the live in-play betting service is complemented with key information about the games covered.

There is also a schedule of upcoming events listed on the right-hand side and an option to make certain matches or games a ‘favourite’ which saves having to scroll through the selections at a later stage. Paddy Power simply cannot be beaten on their vast in-play market range. It excels even with the overall in-running prices or values.

Deposit & Withdrawals

Generally, withdrawals take 2-3 working days to reach your account, but sometimes they may take even up to 5 days due to bank processing times. Customers of Paddy Power can deposit and withdraw their money with safe and reliable methods, and these methods are widely used in the sports betting industry, so there is no need to think otherwise. Depositing and withdrawing is available via cheque, credit/debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, including Switch, and Laser), Entropay, bank transfers, e-wallets including PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller, prepaid cards like UKash or Paysafecard, and last but not least, pay by mobile. Make sure to check out the Paddy Power’s web-site for full details on the proposed banking options. At the moment Paddy Power accepts only Euros and British pounds.

Customer Service & Security

An all round service is available at Paddy Power that is friendly and skilful. All the basic ways for communication are covered, in regards to email, telephone, and live chat. Besides that, in order to unburden the customer support staff from answering to generic questions, Paddy Power features a comprehensive help section.

Customer security is very important for big bookmakers like Paddy Power. There are safeguards and encryption techniques employed, which ensure the integrity of your data. Investments are continually made in state-of-the-art security software and every transaction at Paddy Power is made with utmost confidence; all transactions are encrypted using 128 bit SSL encryption.

Summary

Paddy Power is a very streamlined operator that will interest you with its money back daily specials. This bookmaker, the biggest one in Ireland, continually offers innovative concepts for all punters and it definitely deserves your attention. The selection of events to bet on is almost endless and if you like betting on specials, Paddy Power is probably the most appropriate place to open an account. Paddy Power is a good solid bookmaker especially for Irish and UK punters and those that like novelty bets at a bookie where promotions are running all the time, payments are almost never late, and customers enjoy professional support.

It usually takes not more than 30 minutes for horse racing bets to settle. On the other hand, it may take up to an hour if you want to receive your funds on your account from betting on other sports. Novelty markets or obscure sports take up to several hours. Paddy Power will always strive to give you your winnings as quickly as possible.

Are your betting account details secure?

Paddy Power employs security measures like encryption, firewalls and a dedicated security team that works around the clock to achieve the highest level of security. With these measures Paddy Power protects your personal and financial information from getting accessed by unauthorized persons.

Does Paddy Power accept players from my country?

There are legal or commercial reasons why Paddy Power will not permit accounts to be opened by players from certain countries. Its list of restricted jurisdictions is maintained and may be changed at some point of time without prior notice. In order to see the full list visit the Help Centre at Paddy Power’s website and type in restricted countries, or just ask customer support.

Can I use my mobile to place a bet?

Betting at Paddy Power is available on all Apple, Android, Windows, and Blackberry phones. Besides, Paddy Power has a brand new iPad app that you can download from the App Store. Even if you are not lucky enough to have a Smartphone you can place bets via your mobile through Paddy Power’s mobile site. All you need is a phone that can connect to the internet. Just type in paddypower.com in your mobile browser and visit the optimized web app.

What currencies can I use to fund my account?

Paddy Power deals only with two currencies, Euro and UK Sterling and you can select one of them upon registering. Once you have selected your preferred currency, it cannot be changed. If you want to deposit and withdraw with your local currency, Paddy Power will convert the currency to the ones mentioned above with its DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion) that displays the conversion rate, the base amount and the converted amount.